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Active hexose correlated compound enhances tumor surveillance through regulating both innate and adaptive immune responses

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Abstract

Active hexose correlated compound (AHCC) is a mixture of polysaccharides, amino acids, lipids and minerals derived from cocultured mycelia of several species of Basidiomycete mushrooms. AHCC has been implicated to modulate immune functions and plays a protective role against infection. However, the potential role of AHCC in tumor immune surveillance is unknown. In this study, C57BL/6 mice were orally administered AHCC or water, followed by tumor cell inoculation. We showed that compared to pure water-treated mice, AHCC treatment significantly delayed tumor development after inoculation of either melanoma cell line B16F0 or lymphoma cell line EL4. Treatment with AHCC enhanced both Ag-specific activation and proliferation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, increased the number of tumor Ag-specific CD8+ T cells, and more importantly, increased the frequency of tumor Ag-specific IFN-γ producing CD8+ T cells. Interestingly, AHCC treatment also showed increased cell number of NK and γδ T cells, indicating the role of AHCC in activating these innate-like lymphocytes. In summary, our results demonstrate that AHCC can enhance tumor immune surveillance through regulating both innate and adaptive immune responses.

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Abbreviations

CFSE:

5-(and –6) Carboxyfluorescein diacetate, succinimidyl ester

AHCC:

Active hexose correlated compound

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Kim Bottomly from Yale Immunobiology for providing C57BL/6 OT-1 and OT-II transgenic mice. We thank Dr. Fotios Koumpouras and Dr. Bohdan Harvey for critical review of the manuscript. This work was supported by an Arthritis Foundation Investigator Award, NIH (NIAMS) K01 AR 02188 and NIH (NIAID) R01 (R01 AI56219) grant (Z.Y.), and partially supported by the Amino Up, Japan (Z.Y). D.Z. is supported by National Science Foundation of China (No. 30471593), Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (T 0206). Authors from Yale have no financial conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, CAB Building, Room 517, 300 Cedar Street, 208031, New Haven, CT, 06520-8031, USA

    Yunfei Gao & Zhinan Yin

  2. Shanghai Institute of Immunology, Shanhai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, 004-0839, Shanhai, China

    Dongqing Zhang

  3. R&D Division, Amino Up Chemical Co., Ltd, 004-0839, Sapporo, Japan

    Buxiang Sun, Hajime Fujii & Ken-Ichi Kosuna

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  1. Yunfei Gao
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  2. Dongqing Zhang
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  3. Buxiang Sun
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  4. Hajime Fujii
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  5. Ken-Ichi Kosuna
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  6. Zhinan Yin
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Correspondence to Zhinan Yin.

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Gao, Y., Zhang, D., Sun, B. et al. Active hexose correlated compound enhances tumor surveillance through regulating both innate and adaptive immune responses. Cancer Immunol Immunother 55, 1258–1266 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-005-0111-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-005-0111-9

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